


vesani quaerit amoris

by jedijarmarcal



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Canon Compliant, Canon Related, Drabble, F/M, Feelings Realization, One Shot, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 14:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14427435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedijarmarcal/pseuds/jedijarmarcal
Summary: It's almost a century after the events of The Originals S5E1 take place, when Klaus shows up on Caroline's doorstep.





	vesani quaerit amoris

**Author's Note:**

> I have a very strong headcanon about what Caroline does with her life post-canon and well into the future. Enjoy, and thank you for taking the time to read.

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 _Errat, qui finem vesani quaerit amoris:_  
_verus amor nullum novit habere modum._  
- **Sextus Propertius  
**   
~~He errs that seeks to set a term to the frenzy of love; true love hath no bound.~~

 

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“Dieu,” Caroline cursed, her French long since having painted itself like watercolor into her vocabulary, adding a red flourish of passion to her spoken word which only deepened the hold her roots had dug into immortality.

She was very much feeling like fine wine, so much more worldly, full of _interests_ that had developed from boys and cheap liquor into more _cultured_ things like oenology and the logistics of vampire zoning issues in her part of Europe.

Despite how she was still considered a young vampire- especially by Old World standards- Caroline knew how to organize a group of people into efficiency. It was a career choice that she almost couldn’t help making, as the overcrowding of vamps in some of the bigger cities like Lyon or Paris, had been just intolerable. Now, she was a hybrid in her own right. Her school had blossomed into some sort of supernatural university, geared towards teaching integration (invisibility training, as her students called it), population control, sustainable hunting techniques, diplomacy, wealth management and modernization (her 2k90 genius bar for all of the centennials still living like Dracula). Through her connection with Bonnie, she’d even been able to improve relationships between the witches and vampires, a _revolutionary_ win when dealing with beings that had lived through their fair share of real revolutions in their time.

She’d like to think it was her immense skill that helped her secure a seat of power and influence in her corner of Europe- that now included the higher reaches of Scandinavia, and parts of Western Austria- but she had to admit the way that things just sort of “worked” for her whenever the name _Niklaus Mikaelson_ , had found its way into the ears of an adversary.

Almost eighty years had passed since Caroline had truly spent time with Klaus. Over the years they’d kept in touch, but only through modern technology; the occasional happy birthday or holiday message, inquiries from him about something or other with Hope, and the always welcomed heads up about one threat of violence or another. This was all okay, she felt deeply, because they were off living their lives. Separate. On different continents. With a freaking ocean between them.

So she read the text again, making sure she wasn’t suddenly forgetting German.

_Niklaus Mikaelson ist in der Stadt. Bitte beraten._

Here?! Right now? Quickly she fired back an order NOT to engage. The last thing she needed was another bloody massacre to clean up.

Tapping the phone against her chin, Caroline mused over this rather stunning revelation, unsure at the source of a sudden flare of anger. Was she mad he was here, or that he didn’t tell her he was coming?

If her people- while extremely talented- had spotted them, then he had for certain spotted them, which meant it was only a matter of time before he found her. Was she ready to see him? He wouldn’t be kind enough to give her much time to prepare for his arrival. Knowing him as she did, he’d want her off guard and scrambling for control over the situation. The tactic never really worked in his favor, but still; Caroline was a different woman now, a little (lot) more certain of herself and her desires.

Which was petrifying, because she just _knew_ that their impending rendezvous would decide their future.

Exactly one hour later Caroline heard the door e open with the barest of sound. Her back was toward him as she gazed out of her corner office window, overlooking a beautifully manicured intersection in the Paris’ third arrondissement. This was her inner sanctum he was entering, and she hated how aware she suddenly was of her heart.

Choosing not to have the first word, she wanted in tense anticipation, her knees locked, shoulders raised with held breath.

“Hello, Caroline.”

Two things happened at once. The first, she exhaled, the tension rod in her spine releasing as she turned to face him and the second; she analyzed the crap out of his word choice.

_Caroline,_ she thought _, not love or sweetheart. He’s nervous. Why?_

“What brings you to town?”

Klaus looked _good_ \- delicious, even- and it unsettled Caroline at just how taken aback she was by him. She wants to show off, paint the air around them in all of the new strokes her tongue can make now and point to them like a proud child and show him that she can make masterpieces too. Her English sounded unused and harsh, the edges worn down with accents of parisien softness.

“It’s actually a funny story.” His smile was dazzling, _obviously_ , and Caroline cocked an eye, the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement. “I was meeting a connecting flight in Amsterdam, and couldn’t help admire the tulips blooming along the countryside.”

He paused, eyes searching hers, pleading like she was supposed to infer at the implication of what he was _really_ saying. She understood… or she _hoped_ she did, so she remained silent.

Carrying on, Klaus spoke matter of factly, dropping all pretense.

“It was beautiful, Caroline. So I thought of you.”

For a few seconds, Caroline could only stare, slack-jawed and wide-eyed at his stupidly beautiful face. With coded sentences and pointed, lovesick stares Klaus had let her on to his feelings, but never had he been so direct with his feelings towards her. The revelation instantly put Caroline on edge, and she wanted to look away, yell at him to stop messing with her emotions. This was _her_ town, her freaking continent, and he couldn’t come into her life again simply because he _missed_ _her_.

  
Where was the peril? The dangerous threat against her or her loved ones? When did he ever simply find her because he wanted to see her? There was _always_ an ulterior motive with Klaus Mikaelson.

“I’ve done well for myself here.” _Without you._

She all but snarls the brag at him in retaliation, suddenly feeling very protective of how much she’s matured since leaving Mystic Falls. The design of her life was as it was because _she_ was in control and called the shots. _She_ was the only big bad around to worry about, and it’d been a long time since someone had threatened that control.

“Trust me, sweetheart,” he held his hands up in a defensive motion, “I am immensely impressed by what you’ve managed to accomplish in just a lifetime. All hail world conqueror, Augustus Caroline, the living personification of ‘ _veni, vidi, vici_ ’.”

Narrowing her eyes, she crossed her arms and tilted her head at him. “You make jokes, _Nero Klausius of New Orleans_ , but you’re always the one running off to conquer some curse or giant swamp-” she hates how upset she sounds and deflects quickly “- and don’t think I didn’t hear about the temper tantrum you threw when Hope married Saurabh.”

“So you’ve kept tabs on me?” He smirked, looking very much like the devil he fancied himself to be. “So you’ve missed me too.”

Caroline rolled her eyes and let her arms drop to her sides. “It’s a tactical move, Klaus. I keep tabs on everyone.”

“And yet, you don’t deny missing me.” He steps closer, like he has the right to, and Caroline does the same, a challenge ringing out with the click of her heel on the marble.

There were a lot of things she could say to him, questions she wants answered but knows it would require a vulnerability in her that only he could appreciate. Their interactions up until this point have been scripted, so well rehearsed by one another that it was no surprise an entire lifetime had passed before they dared to breathe the same air again. As far as she understood, Klaus had given deferred the first move of their next game to her, so why was he breaking character and forcing her hand? When she last left him she understood that whatever conversation they had next would be different, the one that counted.

“We’ve never had this conversation before.”

Just because he was ready to speak plainly, did not mean she was, so she clung to the double entendre like she was grasping at grains of sand falling from her hand. Fear had found its way through her clenched teeth, and Klaus was instantly closer, a hand reaching out to touch hers at her side.

With all of her willpower, she met his gaze and tried to show him every thought she’d ever had about him. The way he looked at her was heartbreaking and wonderful and so akin to the way she’d seen the devout fall to their knees, overwhelmed by the holy light, that she hoped he understand that even with the eight languages she now knew, she was stuck silent by everything he was offering her.

This time was different though, and where in times past he had looked as terrified as she felt- the calculating part of her quietly admitted that she most definitely did not have the upperhand this time around- there was an earnest hope in the curve of his smile. His reply was said in the now narrowed space between their lips, and on his breath the words hit her like the welcome reprieve of an offshore breeze.

“But don’t you want to?”

Awestruck, all she could was stare at him, the smallest crinkle in the corner of her eyes expressing her wonderment.

Time felt still for the first time in a long, long time for Caroline, and she counted the _seconds_ it took for her heart to get ahold of itself and let her think. How had decades raced past her and this feeling never left her?

“Why now?”

It was the only question that she needed him to answer in order for her to process everything and move forward. She was stuck, immortality feeling ripped from her just as quickly as it had been given to her.

“Why not?” His hand was in her hair now, his other hand resting on her hip. If anyone saw them, they’d have thought them old lovers and this embrace something as commonplace as any.

And maybe they were lovers, she mused, realizing that any affair she’d found herself in since him had been _less_ somehow, conversations about epic loves dancing on the edges of her memory.

If she was being honest with herself- and him- the way she felt right now was never going to belong to anyone but him. How could it?

“I’ve changed.”

“You’re still _my_ Caroline.”

“And if I’m not?”

By way of answer, he brought a finger up to her cheek, and she leaned into the touch, shivering as he lightly traced down towards her smile.

The action brought to Caroline the type of clarity that was usually preluded by some sort of glorious aha! moment, and she was baffled by the epiphany washing over her. It was always going to be Klaus for her, she could admit to herself, but still, her insecurities the part of her that had kept him at arm’s length for so many years.

This was _it_ though, and she dropped the last of her walls and spoke aloud the one question that was layered between every mile and every year she put between them.

“And are you mine?”

To belong to him was one thing, but Caroline wasn’t one of his pets or his siblings: they were equals or they were nothing. He could speaking of claiming her, because that’s what Klaus did: claim things. But if they were going to survive each other, he had to get off his high horse and let her continue building her influence and not try to control her-

“With every certainty.”

Each word was a chisel hammered into the last of her doubts, and how _wonderful_ did it feel to finally tap the last bottle of love she’ll ever swallow and taste every undertone of joy that only exists because of their time spent letting this moment ripen with time.

**Author's Note:**

> Well?


End file.
